Filippenko, a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, is well known for his studies of black holes and exploding stars. He is the author of “The Great Courses” series of lectures on astronomy.

He's a favorite of students at Berkeley, and his work has been published in more than 700 papers. He's often seen in television specials about astronomy.

Filippenko will talk about “The Birth and Early Evolution of the Universe” at 1 p.m. and again at 5 p.m. Monday in the performing arts theater.

On Tuesday, he will discuss “Hearts of Darkness-Black Holes in Space” at 10 a.m. in the performing arts theater.

“Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe” will be his topic at noon April 17 at the student center annex.

Filippenko's talks are free and open to the public; Palo Alto College is located at 1400 W. Villaret Blvd.

Go to alamo.edu/pac for more details.

If you can't wait until Monday to talk about stars, you can attend the public star party Saturday night at the Fort McKavett State Historical Site.

The star party begins at dusk, but you might want to arrive earlier so you can walk around and talk to the astronomers and look at their scopes.

There's a $3 entry fee to enter the park, but the star party is free.

Fort McKavett is located about a 21/2-hour drive northwest of San Antonio. Take Interstate 10 west past Junction to FM 1674 and then travel 26 miles north to the site.

Come on out and we can look for comet PanSTARRS, check out the rings of Saturn and feast our eyes on Jupiter!

Bring a red lens flashlight to be extra astro friendly. (Red light does not spoil night vision.) If you don't have a red light, wrap a brown paper bag over the end of a regular flashlight to dim the brightness.

Bring a star chart, too, if you have one so you can pick out a new target that we can hunt together.